Perpetual Magic the Gathering Thread

There was some demand for a perpetual Magic thread. I like dividing things up (we seem to average about 250 posts and 8 pages per expansion) for archival purposes, as it makes it a lot easier to find older posts just by googling your handle + expansion, but I'm willing to try this given how many were asking for it.In the interest of continuity, though, here are our threads for:

This year's set brings back the Titans, adds a new late-game Jace, and adds quite a few new thematically based cards (what they refer to as top-down design: make a mummy, make a shapeshifter, etc.)

The blood thirst mechanic from Guildpact returns, now outside of red and green into black for tribal vampires. Illusions will be supported as a tribe in blue. Trollshroud (originally Centaur Shroud for Mirage fans) is now Hexproof and is all over green cards across rarity levels.

Not horrible, and allows different decks than koth, but it feels kind of win-more in that you can't ever use its second ability on turn 4 and by turn 4 you'd want to be burning people out already: it's like stalling on the edge of victory to maybe spike the football next turn. If you don't get your teeth kicked in.

I like that they seem to be pushing the power level of auras in M12, but if you've ever played Shadowmoor where it was really easy for people to run you over with a god aura if you didn't answer it immediately on turn three or four. It's not fun to lose to them. It's not fun to lose to equipment, either, but it's kind of different in that there's a greater tempo cost to equip and artifact hate tends to be more useful in general.

There's gotta be a way to abuse that with killing negative effects, etc.

And I forgot my original complaint about auras: hexproof in M12 being everywhere.

If you ever played on MTGO while Ledgewalker was legal (hexproof, can only be blocked by fliers), it was pretty difficult to beat monogreen when they dropped ledgewalker and then threw blanchwood armor on it without wrath of god -- which at the time was a $15 card and just about no one in the casual room owned it or played it. If you didn't pyroclasm on turn two, you were pretty much dead; I was basically forced into playing red or blue decks that entire season of standard because of that.

Of course, day of judgment is dirt cheap and there's a lot more death touch around, but losing to hexproof+aura is rough.

I'm not sure about all the hype for Solemn Simulacrum. I only played against it "for reals" in extended, but while it might be pure value, giving up four mana for value that you can't use right away, really, is a pretty big drop in tempo; it's a REALLY bad card to have in your hand against any deck that isn't playing fair.

Which pretty much is only Splinter Twin and Pyromancer Acension right now, I'll admit.

But I remember a lot of extended games where someone would play Solemn Simulacrum and I'd just trigger Restore Balance and end the game on the spot.

Not horrible, and allows different decks than koth, but it feels kind of win-more in that you can't ever use its second ability on turn 4 and by turn 4 you'd want to be burning people out already: it's like stalling on the edge of victory to maybe spike the football next turn. If you don't get your teeth kicked in.

She's infinitely splashable as the first walker with only a single colored mana in her cost. Ideas that jumped out at me when I saw her this morning is that she'd be interesting in U/R or R/B infect. Her Fork ability combos exceptionally well with both Tezzeret's Gambit and Volt Charge giving you four cards or six damage with no overall cost in loyalty counters plus double proliferation elsewhere. A forked Caress of Phyrexia would give an infect deck a huge amount of reach since most people don't really sweat the first three to four poison counters. Also being able to fork a Mutagenic Growth immediately on turn four is doable as well since there is no mana cost. A turn three Phyrexian Crusader could be pinging them for six infect on turn four with that option.

I think discounting her immediately is silly. Yeah Ablaze was basically completely worthless and Nalaar was iffy at best but I think there is at least some potential in this new one. The +1 getting the ability to hit creatures is fairly relevant as well since it messes with combat math and gives you ways to kill things like Lotus Cobra, Squadron Hawk, Grim Lavamancer, etc... without having to spend a card to do it.

Speaking of which, that Tormented Soul is really cute for bloodlust, along with the Taste of Blood; OTOH, why the hell did they add tribal as a card type if they're determined not to use it on completely obvious cards for five years hence?

Also being able to fork a Mutagenic Growth immediately on turn four is doable as well since there is no mana cost. A turn three Phyrexian Crusader could be pinging them for six infect on turn four with that option.

You'd have to pump him before the attack phase though, so they'd know to chump block.

You'd have to pump him before the attack phase though, so they'd know to chump block.

Obviously you wouldn't do it if they had a blocker. But if your turn three dude was going to swing into a clear field than it would be fine to drop Chandra and reverberate with her then Mutagentic Growth him. That'd put you on six for a Phyrexian Crusader or eight for a Phyrexian Vatmother (if you pulled off a turn two Sphere of the Suns).

The funny thing is that I just voted for Chandra on the dailymtg poll as my favorite of the new walkers; I might think Chandra is a toy card, but I play toy decks, too, while I can't really see myself using new jace and new garruk.

I like the new spider pseudo-lord and I like this method of green card advantage (borrowed from Nissa, I guess, with her Chosen) a lot better than New Garruk's type of "just draw shit based on power" like with Hunter's insight.

Drawing cards doesn't feel like real objects because they aren't until you look at them, at least (let alone get them into play), and since only you look at them, it's more a mental object than something physically present in the game. Fetching a spider web card when you tap your spider feels like there are real things happening in a real way, which feels like green.

fuck, I was thinking of getting the new duels game on steam just to try it early.

I'm really unenthusiastic about the new vampire lord though. With nocturnus, curving into him was perfect, it boosted all your 1 and 2 drops. This, otoh, only helps shit you drop AFTER you get to five mana?

Is bloodlust cuumulative? I know flanking is, so I'd imagine it might be? Because if all the vampires have it, what's the point of giving it a boost if it doesn't add together?

Is bloodlust cuumulative? I know flanking is, so I'd imagine it might be? Because if all the vampires have it, what's the point of giving it a boost if it doesn't add together?

Yes, if you give bloodthirst to a creature that already has it than it gets another instance and they're additive. I you cast Vampire Outcasts (2BB, 2/2, Bloodthirst 2) after doing damage with the new lord on the table they'd come in as a 2/2 with 5 +1/+1 counters on them. Just like if you had multiple lords they would get the bloodthirst 3 for each of them.

Could you use the sundial for red to skip end of turn effects like sacking hellspark?

Probably, but you might still need to sac it at the next end of turn that your opponent or you have. We'd need somebody with more expertise but I think certain end of turn effects you just skip once and then never need to do again while others will just trigger on the next end of turn and/or your next end of turn.

When a planeswalker comes into play, they get loyalty counters added to them equal to the number on the bottom right.

They lose loyalty due to using their abilities or because they are dealt damage (when you declare an attack, you can say preemptively that you're going to deal damage to a planeswalker if it's unblocked, or as you throw a lightning bolt, etc.).

The middle sections are abilities that you can use once each of your turns at sorcery speed. The numbers by the abilities are the cost to use them in loyalty. That "cost" can sometimes add loyalty.

The prototypical planeswalker has

+X ability that does something thematic-X ability that allows the walker to defend itself in some way-XX ultimate ability that is big and splashy that you have to use the +X ability several times to work up to

There are a number of walkers that are different from the prototype, from Sarkhan the Mad (no +X abilities), Jace the Mindsculpter (4 abilities and a +0 ability), etc.

Planeswalkers die at 0 loyalty or when another copy is played (legendary rule), even if it's a different incarnation of the same character with different stats.

Could you use the sundial for red to skip end of turn effects like sacking hellspark?

Probably, but you might still need to sac it at the next end of turn that your opponent or you have. We'd need somebody with more expertise but I think certain end of turn effects you just skip once and then never need to do again while others will just trigger on the next end of turn and/or your next end of turn.

Nope, it won't sacrifice on the following turn. Unfortunately I can't remember where I read it (it was either on SCG, or Channel Fireball, or one of the M12 spoiler discussions) but apparently wizard has confirmed that effects like unearth that say "bla bla bla at the beginning of the end step" only trigger at the end of that turn and won't retrigger at every end step. That also means that glimmerpoint stag can permanently exile something or you can keep your putrefax around permanently.

They're usually my go-to place because they're huge (economies of scale) and yet have no understanding of Magic trends (whether that means keeping buttoned up on new products or participating in retailer price collusion); I'm still kicking myself for not getting the Commander 5-pack for $90 from them.

I thikn overall M12 is a pretty meh core set, and core sets themselves are usually pretty meh to begin with. They should just abandon the idea and include more core like reprints in expansions. New players don't care about core sets being "easier", not matter what WoTC says.

I never liked the titans, sad to see them back. The new Jace is terrible, amazing the cache the Jace name carries since he's $30 on preorder. Chandra I thinmk will see plya, red got a HUGE boost this set, Grim Lavamancer is the bomb, new Chandra is actually playable, Koth is still in standard, not to mention Volt Charge to proliferate them.

Really the only card I'm really psyched about is Ponder, I get a few more months out of my beloved Pyromancers Ascension before it goes in Oct. But other than that, there's no cards in M12 I really want to get that I don't already have.

And Innastrad better be fantastic, or dear lord is standard going to blow chunks post rotation.

I'll go ahead and disagree completely, except for the new Chandra being excellent. M12 looks pretty excellent to me, and I'm looking forward to playing with it. I doubt I'll be able to assemble all of the cards, but a deck with 4X lord of the unreal, 4X adaptive automaton, 4X phantasmal image seems pretty amazing. Dropping 4/4 shroud bears for U isn't something you can normally do in a blue deck.

I'll go ahead and disagree completely, except for the new Chandra being excellent. M12 looks pretty excellent to me, and I'm looking forward to playing with it. I doubt I'll be able to assemble all of the cards, but a deck with 4X lord of the unreal, 4X adaptive automaton, 4X phantasmal image seems pretty amazing. Dropping 4/4 shroud bears for U isn't something you can normally do in a blue deck.

You must have a bvery low bar of excellence. And "Illusion.dec" is a sad sad thing that will never go anywhere.

People like Vampires. It's a fitting mechanic for them. It's a mechanic that rewards being aggressive. And unlike other creature buffs, it doesn't necessarily require overextending or even having two creatures in play at once since it triggers off of other kinds of damage.

I remember playing a game against TEPS (the extended perfect storm) where I got him down to zero land, zero cards in hand. OTOH, ratchet bomb hadn't been printed yet so I couldn't kill his LEDs so he still thought he could luck into IGG (ill gotten gains, before the rule change for wishes) before my tombstalker killed him. So much fun (for me).

Once it loses Kor Firewalker and Leyline of Sanctity, UW control will be begging RDW to atleast not beat it in the face so its friends won't see the bruises.

Counter isn't keeping enough burn out of your face, and anything ou bounce is getting replyed wuickly since the curve is so low.

Quote:

I'm kind of stoked on Smallpox. I'm considering trying to build something around it because I'm a bad person.

Well, for a Limited Time Only, you have Smallpox and Bloodghast in standard at the same time. You also have Reassembling Skeleton, and Vengful Pharoh. Smallpax is n my budding MBC build which I'm sure will fail spectacularly but I can;t get the idea out of my head.

Did OK in the pre release, 3-1, I got a Vengful Pharoh and that was about if for rares, but I had decent amount of black removal, do I draft UB fliers with a red splash for shock and fireball. That 1B dude that gives creatures deathtouch for 1B is the BOMB in limited.

Did a midnight pre-release that was only only four rounds and went 3-0-1. I was glad to be out of there though because my deck was terrible and there's no way I would have won prize if it had been the proper number of rounds. My win condition was "elixir of immortality until I find a Jace's Archivist or an Aegis Angel." Yeah. I beat decks with Gideon and Sorin in them with that pile. I blame my opponent's sleep deprivation.

So naturally I sleep for four hours and wake up to do my REAL pre-release, which I 5-0, with this: